daa Finance plc Statement
daa Finance plc
EUR400,000,000 1.554 per cent notes due 2028 of daa finance plc, guaranteed by daa plc (ISIN:XS1419674525)
COVID-19 – update
19 May 2020
daa plc (“daa”) has today announced that due to the ongoing challenges faced by the aviation industry as a result of Covid-19, it will make a significant operating loss in the current financial year, with continued uncertainty in the medium term.
daa anticipates that passenger traffic at Dublin and Cork airports next year could be as low as about 21 million passengers, compared to 35.5 million passengers last year. The last time that Dublin and Cork airports had passenger levels of 21 million passengers, the Irish business had between 750 and 1,000 fewer employees.
In order to reflect the significantly reduced number of passengers that are likely to use its Irish airports in the medium term, daa is developing plans to implement a range of cost reduction measures and new ways of working. The measures will include a reduction in employee numbers, a review of all non-pay costs, a review of its capital expenditure and new infrastructure programme as well as a potential restructuring of certain operations.
daa’s Group Chief Executive, Dalton Philips, noted:
“The collapse in passenger traffic this year is not just a 2020 issue that faces us, our airline customers and the rest of the global aviation sector. Most commentators and analysts agree that the industry won’t see a return to 2019 passenger levels for several years to come.
We are working on a plan to reduce costs right across the business and to change the ways that we work. In the context of significantly reduced passenger traffic for several years, we have no choice but to right-size the business to match the number of passengers that are likely to use our Irish airports in the medium term.”
Enquiries: Ray Gray, Group Chief Financial Officer, daa plc
Telephone number: +353 1 944 5265/6
Catherine Gubbins, Director of Finance, daa plc
Telephone number: +353 1 944 2205